Dear Sagacious Mick LaSalle: With new "improved" 3-D techniques, do you think 3-D is here to stay, or will audiences tire of the gimmick, as they've done before?

Pat Villano, San Francisco

Dear Sagacious Pat Villano: It depends. If no one ever makes a great 3-D movie, audiences will tire of it. But if someone finally makes it work artistically - someone good, not James Cameron - that would revolutionize 3-D and pave the way for other directors. Then it would be everywhere. Either way, 3-D won't be as hot next year because of the diminished box office of 3-D movies.

Dear Mick LaSalle: I've come to realize Lauren Bacall was a mannered and unnatural actress in many of her films. Do you agree with my feeling that she is overrated?

Dear Mike Thompson: No, because I don't think she ever was highly regarded as an actress. However, she was and is highly regarded for the movies she made with Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s - for being good in them and for embodying some of the glamour and romance of her era. That doesn't make her one of the greats, but as legacies go, it's not bad.

Dear Mick: I agree that one shouldn't control the content of other people's movies. But isn't that what product placement does? Tobacco companies are paying to have their product inserted into movies.

Ted Cruze, Belmont

Dear Ted: Yes, except that you never see actual tobacco brand names in movies, except in rare cases (such as Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds' conversation in "Definitely, Maybe"). The objections about smoking in movies usually don't have to do with product placement but with smoking happening onscreen at all.

Hola Mick: What is it about Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Darth Vader, the Terminator and the Wolfman that continues to fascinate?

Hola Roberto: I can't say because I don't share that impression. To me, Darth Vader is boring and the Terminator and the Wolfman are kind of a joke. Mr. Hyde has some psychological truth, and there's something about Dracula that has a continuing metaphorical intensity, though I don't remember the last time I saw a good vampire movie - or, come to think of it, if I've ever seen one. Even the Bela Lugosi "Dracula" is ponderous, though Helen Chandler has a nice spooky quality as Mina.

Dear Mick: Something should be done to stop characters looking away from the road while driving to talk to another character. It makes me cringe! All I ask is that they do as they'd do if really driving.

Gene Bunch, Alameda

Dear Gene: It makes me cringe, too, because I keep bracing for an explosion when I'm supposed to be paying attention to the dialogue.

Dear Mick LaSalle: I find your article about "Atlas Shrugged Part I" off base and misleading. Obviously, whoever wrote this review is very, very liberal. Of course, I have to take into consideration that you come from the most liberal of all places on the face of the Earth. I am so thankful that I don't live in California, the land of fruits and nuts. You probably love Osama bin Obama, the man who currently occupies the White House. He will be a one-termer, thank God! Oh thank God!

Charles Rahn, Palm Beach, Fla.

Dear Charles Rahn: It's good that you feel the freedom to state your true opinions without a filter. You absolutely must keep talking and expressing these sentiments to everyone you meet. If more people like you speak up and reveal as eloquently the honest soul of today's conservatism, you will have a tremendous impact on your cause. You really could end up doing God's work, but in ways you'd never realize. {sbox}

Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. On SFGate To hear Ask Mick LaSalle with commentary, trivia and lots of extras, download his podcast at sfgate.com/podcasts.